Catalonia's Advocates

Lawyers, Society, and Politics in Barcelona, 1759-1900

Stephen Jacobson

Publication Year: 2009

Offering a window into the history of the modern legal profession in Western Europe, Stephen Jacobson presents a history of lawyers in the most industrialized city on the Mediterranean. Far from being mere curators of static law, Barcelona's lawyers were at the center of social conflict and political and economic change, mediating between state, family, and society.

Cover

Title PAge, Copyright PAge

Contents

Acknowledgments

This long-overdue book has gathered many intellectual debts over
the years. Numerous scholars have offered insightful comments at conferences
and seminars in the United States, Britain, and Spain. The Universitat
Pompeu Fabra and King’s College London...

1. Introduction: LAWYERS AND THE CITY

Over the course of what has been termed the “long nineteenth century,”
lawyers throughout much of Europe accomplished something rather
remarkable. In the late eighteenth century, they constituted an order of
experts, modestly comfortable within the privileged...

2. The Modern Profession: OLD REGIME AND ENLIGHTENMENT

When did the modern profession emerge? This question, once the focus
of an entrenched debate, is worth resuscitating because it has not been satisfactorily
answered with regard to the legal profession. At one time, sociologists
confidently contended that industrialization...

3. The Liberal Profession: WAR, REVOLUTION, AND REPRESSION

The study of lawyers and revolution has thus far focused
exclusively on the French Revolution.1 Tocqueville first tried to solve the
puzzle of why lawyers who had the “tastes and habits of aristocracy” and an
“instinctive penchant for order” had “contributed singularly to overturning
the French monarchy.”...

4. The Conservative Profession: INSTITUTIONS, LEADERS, AND THE LAW

In the preceding chapter, we discussed a pamphlet, published in
1821, in which a fictional lawyer didactically explained the virtues of the constitution
to a peasant, who, according to the author, belonged to a class of
individuals who understood “nothing of current events.”1 As the liberal revolution
wound...

5. The Corporate Profession: BACKGROUNDS, TRAINING, AND PRACTICE

Lawyers faced frequent criticism as a result of their enviable success.
A conspicuous number of adages reflected popular wisdom and prejudice.
Some are innocuous, offering practical advice or poking innocent fun:
“To the lawyer, one tells the truth.” “If you think you have fooled the doctor,
the confessor, or the lawyer, you are fooling yourself...

6. The Nationalist Profession: LAW AND CATALANISM

During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Catalanism
grew popular among many lawyers. The bar remained diverse, led by highprofile
mercantile and civil advocates closely linked to urban and agrarian
elites and dynastic political parties. But many members were not content
with the overall state of affairs, for individual...

7. Conclusion and Epilogue THE SILVER AGE OF THE PROFESSION

Looking back on the history of Barcelona lawyers over the long nineteenth
century, even the most skeptical cannot help but take notice. When Charles
III ascended to the throne in 1759, the bar was a shadow of its old self: a few
dozen litigators discretely went...

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